Well it's not Tickety Boo
With the temperatures rising during the summer of 1976 Vivienne (Minnie Driver) is trying to put on a school musical version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. But between the temptations of afternoons in the sun, the student's personal issues as well as colleagues being less than supportive of her things are not easy. To try and ramp up interest Vivienne tries to introduce some of her student's favourite songs into her version of The Tempest.
I've mentioned it before but sometimes I am convinced that I have watched a different movie to everyone else. Take "Hunky Dory" which almost comes across like a British version of "Glee" with its combination of coming of age issues for students and teaching issues for Vivienne as they try and put on a musical. Now there are those who think this movie is great but what I watched seemed to meander along, not really going anywhere and if truth be told boring me to distraction. The thing is that there is potential in "Hunky Dory", the various dramas could be quite entertaining and interesting but it almost felt like no one was that interested in focusing on them.
The trouble seems to be that "Hunky Dory" is more interested in being a musical itself with various scenes of the students rehearsing. Nothing wrong with that except it is all too manufactured with scenes more fitting of a music video than a movie. Don't get me wrong as the singing is good and the choice of songs from the 70s certainly appealed but it was all kind of look how handsome Aneurin Barnard as Davey looked whilst he was singing.
The strange knock on effect of this is that pretty much every character is anonymous and certainly forgettable. Yes you might remember Aneurin Barnard as Davey but that could be more to do with the fact he looks in this more than a little like a young Lee Mead. And as for Minnie Driver, well she looks gorgeous and director Marc Evans does a nice job of framing her in the shot to give her that 70s sun lit style but her character is again forgettable.
What this all boils down to is that "Hunky Dory" didn't do it for me and I found myself questioning whether I was watching the same movie as others had seen. Yes it has some plus points with the music being nice but as a whole it comes up short of the mark with a meandering style which doesn't really go anywhere.
